Nexus 7 : unlock to root ?

Hello everybody so i already looked on how to root nexus 7 using nexus toolkit. But few minutes ago i read a thread saying you need to unlock bootloader to root . What is bootloader and do i need to unlock it to root ? i read that it wipes all your stuff ? And also read that putting Roms wipes all your stuff , can someone explain that please ? thanks

AFAIK you do need to unlock the bootloader to root it, but it's very simple using Wugs toolkit. I'll let some smarter people in here explain, but the short story is you have more flexibility with kernels and such with an unlocked bootloader. Unlike flashing a rom, unlocking/relocking the boot loader wipes /sdcard where all you images and files are stored as well as data and cache (all your apps and info) whereas flashing a rom only wipes data and cache.

PS, I moved you thread to the All Things Root section so more folks familiar with root could chime in.